Second Chance
by Yakosh
Summary: She was so close, but she failed. "I can give you a second chance. In return, you must do something for me." A second chance? A chance to go back and save her friends? Anything for it. Time travel story inspired by Scattering Time and Space and Crimson Memories Repeat. Rated T for some swearing and violence. OP Ruby.
1. Chapter 1

**A time travel story. Inspired by Scattering Time and Space, Crimson Memories Repeat, and to a lesser extent, For a Good Future.**

 **This is just the prologue.**

 **Disclamer: I do not own any part of RWBY or receive any sort of monetary gain for writing this store. I write this purely for my own enjoyment and the enjoyment of my readers. (I'm putting this here just because almost every story I read has it, however I don't get why. It's blatantly obvious and not required anywhere in the terms of (which I read very carefully looking for this specifically, so if I missed it, I must be truly blind). Can someone tell me?)**

* * *

 **(3rd person)**

She walked through the wastes that were once the beautiful City of Vale. The sounds of Grimm filled the air. Atlesian Knights patrolled the city, ordered to shoot anything that moved in, be it human, Faunus, or Grimm. All people here were assumed Hunters and deemed wanted by the new White Fang government. The Grimm were being hunted for the sake of telling the people they were doing something and in slight hope of reclaiming the city. Vale was deemed lost, so what was she doing here? Killing Grimm and Atlesian Knights for someone who happened to have the money. Well technically, she was escorting something, she didn't know or care what, but it involved killing any and all Grimm and Atlesian Knights on sight.

Some Grimm round the corner.

Her scythe unfolds in her hand as she takes it off her back, leaping forward at the Grimm and turning them into a pile of dissipating Grimm limbs and body parts.

She folds the scythe again and puts it back in its place, continuing to walk along next to the slow moving vehicle.

Go here. Do jobs. Get payed. Go to Atlas. By food and supplies, occasionally temporary housing. Repeat. That was her life, living for the sake of living and nothing else. Boring, monotonous, and friendless, at least, after all her friends had already died.

She'd managed to kill Cinder but by then it was already too late. She was the last Hunter she knew of, though there were no doubt others surviving somewhere. To the best of her knowledge, even Ozpin had fallen.

Sometimes. Many times. Even most of the time, perhaps, she wished for a chance to just go back and try again. To save Remnant. To not let Yang or Weiss or Blake or Jaune or Pyrrha or Nora or Ren or _any_ of them die.

But that wasn't possible.

They were all dead and it would stay that way.

Realizing where her thoughts were going, she stopped thinking, putting a lid on her emotions before she attracted every Grimm in the city.

Too late however. So many Grimm. Possibly hundreds, crawling out of all the buildings. While she may have put a lid back on her emotions, the driver was probably very scared which was attracting even more Grimm. In turn making him more scared, which attracted even _more_ Grimm.

 _Escort missions are the worst._

"Top speed, let's get out of here," she orders the driver, jumping on top of the car and activating sniper mode on Crescent Rose and loading a magazine of HE rounds.

No way she'd have enough ammo for each one individually. She begins firing at larger groups, shredding the Grimm apart. If there weren't so many, it would be extremely effective. The driver took off top speed along the clearest road, even though it wasn't the right direction and Ruby fired forward, clearing out any Grimm in the way.

As they drive out of the circle of Grimm, the Grimm begin to sprint full speed, chasing after the car.

She pulls out a fire Dust crystal and throws it into the enormous hoard of Grimm, shooting it just before it was lost in the stampede and destroying tens of Grimm.

 _Too many._

She aims at the nearest pillar of a building that had nothing but its support pillars left on the bottom floor that was slightly ahead of them, aiming to blockade the path for the Grimm and buy them some time to get away. As the high-caliber fire Dust round hits the pillar it cracks and collapses, causing the building to start falling, almost crashing down on top of them and crushing what could have been hundreds of the Grimm.

"Faster. Get out of here."

As they drive past a large and relatively intact seeming building, a gigantic Nevermore bursts through the building, raining chunks of rubble all over the road, behind them, ahead of them, and on top of them.

She leaps into the air, her eyes lighting aflame with the power of the Fall Maiden, a power Cinder had inadvertently passed to her.

She swings her scythe and a storm of rose petals created by her Semblance as well as controlled and hardened by the power of the Fall Maiden fly like a bunch of razor sharp blades follow its motion, shredding the rubble and the Nevermore that tries to fly through it.

Fire surrounds the blade of her scythe and she swings it at the hoard of Grimm, burning them to ashes.

She didn't want to use the powers of the Fall Maiden because it no doubt made Salem far more interested in her, but it was that or be crushed by several tons of falling rubble. Taking a gambit was better than flat out dying. She hoped the driver was too busy driving to really notice what she was doing.

She drops back down onto the car to avoid wasting her powers—she didn't really know what they worked off, since it certainly wasn't Aura, but she knew they must have limits—and her eyes loose the fiery glow.

Scythe reverts to sniper rifle and she continues shooting at the Grimm that grew ever more distant.

They leave the city, passing the broken wall and continue driving for a short while.

Suddenly the car swerves and skids to a stop, just a bit away from the edge of a broken bridge. _Shit._

"This thing can go off road, right?" she asks the driver, leaning down off the roof.

"Uh... sure?" he answers unsurely.

"Then let's go. Unless you want to be trampled on by a stampede of Grimm."

The car turns the rest of the way and drives in the direction they were originally going next to the ravine, towards their destination which was thankfully outside the city. In fact, the destination of this car though not their—'their' meaning her clients—final destination was a train station where they would unload the cargo and take it to Atlas. While Hunters were wanted, people realized this was simply because the White Fang feared them and they were still paid for their services, which were generally some form of protection.

Well, they were until all the ones openly Hunters were killed, leaving her the last one.

Needless to say, the number of Atlesian Knights dedicated specifically to hunting her down was ridiculous. They would never get her, not if they kept doing what they were. No number of Atlesian Knights could catch her. Her speed was too great for them to catch her if it came down to it.

"We're almost there," the driver announces.

Ruby looked out behind to see if any Grimm were following them, satisfied she puts away Crescent Rose and sits down, looking at the rising shattered moon.

The only thing that remained unchanged in her life. _At least there is something beautiful left in this world._

She takes out her scroll—modified to run off of Aura, which allowed to run basically indefinitely—and puts on her decade-old headphones which somehow had remained undamaged in the past 11 years.

She turns on a song and watches the moon rise on the top of the car. She rarely had more than minutes a day to relax.

She looks forward and sees a train station, relatively devoid of damage thanks to the constant Atlesian Knights patrolling it. The second person inside the car opens the window and reaches a hand holding a considerable quantity of lien out. Ruby takes it and says, "You never payed me. I never protected you," before jumping off the car running to a stop.

Seeing a patrol Bullhead high above, she uses her Semblance to run into the ravine and hides in a small cave.

Satisfied with her certainty that she hadn't been seen and when she no longer hears the sound of the engines, she emerges from the cave and checks her supplies.

Low on ammo. Low on food, now seems like as good a time as any to go to Atlas.

She presses a small button on her red cloak and it turns white. Climbing out of the ravine and using her Semblance to dash through a brief gap in the patrols, she boards the train that was already starting to move.

The car she ended up in appeared to be full of various foods, presumably brought from the Vale storage.

 _Well there's food solved._ She grabs an MRE and eats it quickly, focused on getting food and ignoring the so-so at best taste. Who was she kidding, it tasted terrible, but it had calories.

She opens the door and climbs out of the car and onto the top.

The train drew a large number of Grimm, but they couldn't keep up with the high speed train.

She climbs back into the car and curls up in the corner, hidden from the entrance and closes her eyes. The trip from Vale to Atlas was a long one.

* * *

The door opens, instantly waking the sleeping woman.

The inspectors were human. "We got a stowaway," one says, rounding some crates and laying eyes on her.

She dashes right past him and out of the train, hiding from the inspectors.

She looks around. She was inside the walls of Atlas. She sneaks out of the train station and assumes a normal posture, blending with the crowd.

Checking how much money she had, she decides that spending a bit on a decent meal that actually tasted good wasn't a bad idea.

She enters the first restaurant she sees since anything that wasn't MREs and what not would taste amazing to her.

Ordering some dinner, she sits down and eats.

Half an hour later, when she's just about to finish, things go south.

"Everyone exit this building. Ruby Rose you are under arrest for treason," the Atlesian Knight says, it and its squad leveling their guns on her and everyone scrambling out of the building.

"It's not treason if I was never on your side," she says, standing up and switching her cloak to red.

"Come with us or-"

"Or what? You'll kill me? Isn't that what you plan to do anyway?" she asks, her scythe unfolding in her hand.

In a flash she's standing behind the knight, which slides apart along the middle and falls to the ground, followed by a bunch of rose petals.

A few seconds later, the Atlesian Knights are all in scraps.

She leaves a lien note on the counter, paying for her food and steps outside the building to find a bunch of Atlesian Knights pointing hundreds of guns at her from various levels. Several White Fang snipers could also be seen in the distance. And worst of all, smack in front of her, several meters away stood a red-headed bull-Faunus with a katana.

"Ruby Rose. I'm impressed that you managed to avoid us so long, but I find it exceedingly stupid of you to show up in this city. You're the last one, and yet you walk right into my hands."

She spins round her scythe and says, "I was hungry."

People running away or watching in a combination of fear and hope could be seen through the semi-circle of Atlesian Knights.

 _He's not an opponent I can hold back against._

Spinning like a red missile in her cloak, she launches into the air and spreads her cloak out, stopping her spinning.

Her eyes light with the flame of the Fall Maiden and rose petals storm around her.

All the knights and snipers open fire, but the projectiles bounce off the barrier of petals around her. Then with a swing of her scythe, the petals flying in a curve, shredding the knights and missing Adam who jumped back to avoid the attack.

Her scythe switches to a sniper rifle and 7 shots take out the 7 snipers.

"I suggest you bring a larger army next time," she says, having decimated all but Adam himself.

"The power of the Fall Maiden. And it seems you're even more adept and wielding it than Cinder was," Adam says.

"Where's 'Queen?' She gonna help you out or just leave you to die?" Ruby speaks.

"The powers of the Maidens can't be that powerful if you were able to kill Cinder," he says with a smirk. "True."

Adam puts his hand on his sword. Ruby switches her sniper rifle back to a scythe and readies it. Her eyes glow a brilliant white and her scythe is covered in a white flame.

"But I'm not simply the Fall Maiden," Ruby replies.

The two charge at each other.

Adam lands on the roof of the building behind Ruby. Ruby lands on the ground. Blood spurts from Adam's side while not a scratch appears on the Argent Maiden.

With nothing but the wave of a hand, a million razor sharp blades cloaked in white fire fly at Adam, shredding through his feeble defenses and causing him to fall to his knee, covered in cuts and bleeding from his whole body.

"The power of the Argents normally only has an effect on the Grimm, however it seems that when combined with the power of the Maidens, that restriction is lifted," Ruby says, flying up to stand in front of the man who was responsible for the death of many of her friends.

"And now, you will face retribution!" she yells, swinging her scythe and beheading leader of White Fang.

Then the brilliant light in her eyes fades, and she leans on her scythe. The use of the power of the Argents was taxing on her body.

Hundreds of Atlesian Knights crowd the streets and buildings, aiming at her.

 _Shit._

Without the use of the power of the Maidens, she wouldn't be able to defend against that amount of high-tech Dust rounds. So, fighting the massive headache she was experiencing, she used her Semblance to retreat, leaping along the roofs and attempting to escape the city.

With one final leap, she leaps over the wall and lands outside the city, hiding in some ruined houses that were outside the walls.

Just as she catches her breath, a red hole rips in the air in front of her. Behind it was a place where the sky was red and purple crystals littered the ground which looked red, but that may have been from the red sky. The terrain was not like any place on Remnant. In fact, the only things in common were the presence of an atmosphere—proven by the clouds in the red sky and lack of powerful wind flowing into the hole—, the presence of gravity—proven by the existence of an atmosphere—and the shattered moon in the sky which was undoubtedly the same moon.

And in the portal stood a woman. Salem. 'Queen.' Grimm Queen. The root of all evil.

"There you are, simple soul," she spoke.

Tendrils of darkness pulled Ruby in through portal into the Grimm Queen's realm.

The presence of the moon proved it was also 'on Remnant.' It's presence in the exact same place in the sky proved that it was _in the same place on Remnant._

Forcing down the headache, she once more activates the power of the Argents and the power of the Maidens along with it.

The tendrils are burned away by the white flames, but not before she's pulled through the portal, which seals behind her.

"There you are, Grimm Queen," she says, fighting her fear.

With a yell she charges forward at the Grimm Queen, aiming to cut her in half.

The Salem avoids the attack by stepping to the side and Ruby spins around, shooting round after round of what looked like beams of white fire out of her rifle, all of which were deflected by Salem. Save one, which scraps her side and black blood flows from the wound. _She's not immortal! I can kill her, perhaps end all Grimm! It would be a sad world without friends, but also one without Grimm or White Fang. A world in a better state then ever in human history!_

In retaliation thousands of beams of darkness fire at the Last Huntress.

Met with a brilliant light, the darkness evaporates and the Huntress charges towards the Grimm Queen, who parries the scythe with a barrier of darkness appearing in front of her hand.

The white fire coated scythe turns into a blur as Ruby overcharges her Semblance and releases thousands of strikes upon the Grimm Queen.

Some strikes make it past the Queen's defense and small cuts and scratches appear all over the Queen, causing her to be covered in black blood. As the endless rain of strikes stops, she allows her defense to fall and collapses on the ground. Ruby swings her scythe but before it lands, the white flames vanish and the scythe slows to a fraction of its original speed, a red glow shatters around Ruby and the scythe bounces off the Queen's pitiful defense.

"Such a shame. You were so close," Salem says sarcastically, standing up and grabbing the scythe, throwing it aside.

A beam of darkness comes from Salem's palm, striking the center of Ruby's chest and spheres of red spiraled around it and towards Salem, being absorbed into Salem's hand, draining the very soul of Ruby.

She writhed in pain and defiance as she floated in the air, shrouded in a dark aura.

Then right as consciousness slipped away, her world turn white and the pain vanished. She felt like she was floating, no force acting on her.

"Where am I?" The question came out instinctively. _Am I dead?_

"Not quite. You will be the moment you leave this timeless moment, however," a disembodied voice that sounded vaguely female spoke from all around her, reading her thoughts and surprising. _So I failed?_

No answer.

 _Who are you?_

"I'm an observer. Or perhaps I am the moon. My power of intervention is limited, however, I can offer you a second chance."

* * *

 **And that's the end of the prologue. I finally wrote something new that actually feels like it might be good enough to post, like I didn't really cringe while reading it. Who knows how many thousands of words of unposted shit I have. Okay, I went and checked. 25k words of unposted writing, though some of it I plan to probably post at some point. Anyway, moving on.**

 **I realize that Ruby was a 'bit' overpowered (okay, no matter how you look at it, defeating Adam in 2 attacks and killing him with a third is a lot overpowered), however if you consider that she's the Fall Maiden (which is reasonable, since she probably ends up killing Cinder, whose last thoughts will naturally be of her and she qualifies (basically, she's a young woman)) and a silver-eyed warrior (who I unoriginally decided to call 'Argents' (though I'm not sure where I got that, it might even be multiple stories)) who has the power to freeze an enormous dragon of a Grimm, it doesn't seem that ridiculous.**

 **Given the future plot for this story, I had to make her able to beat Salem, but I also needed her to lose, so I went with her running out of her Aura thanks to having used her abilities to kill Adam. With the fact that she was unconscious for a while after freezing the dragon Grimm and said that 'everything hurt,' I decided that the cost of the abilities of the Argents—aside from Aura—would be things like head pains.**

 **As for Salem's ability to devour souls, Salem = Grimm Queen = Grimm = attracted to emotions ~ eats emotions ~ eats souls. It's kind of a stretch, but I think it's reasonable.**

 **Any reviews, follows, and/or favorites would be greatly appreciated. Especially reviews.**


	2. Chapter 2

**The amount of people reading this... 17 follows in less than 24 hours. It has more follows, favorites, and views in 24 hours than majority of my other stories (especially if you count the ones I haven't even posted :P).**

 **Thanks to:** _ **Anime and Game Fan,** **Culebra del Sol,** **Deadfallman,** **Grimm Knight,** **LordMesirix,** **Neo gen x,** **Photon Dragon,** **ShaDoWrAVen15,** **Shadowdragis,** **Tenma-Tenshi,** **TheShadow977,** **TheSuperLucius,** **Whispering Kataclysm,** **jax-was-here,** **jetmound,** **loganlamothe, and**_ ** _supercreampuffpowas_ for following. If your name is fucked up, blame auto-correct 'cause I copy-pasted them.**

 **Thanks to:** _ **Dragdownintotheabyss,**_ ** _Natural Born Flamer, and Matt Cyr_ for reviewing.**

* * *

 **(Third person)**

 _A second chance?_

"I can give you a second chance. In exchange, you must do something for me," the voice spoke.

Anything. A chance to save Remnant. A chance to save her friends. _What do you need from me?_

"Simple. I need you to succeed. To bring ensure that light prevails. As an observer, my ability to interfere with your world is... limited. While I can do things impossible to someone living in your world, I am also unable to do many things that anyone living in your world can. Any interaction with the physical world beyond the creation of some sound or light is beyond me.

Even the ability to communicate with someone from your world is limited. If I send you back, there will be no third chance and no one else will get a second one. I can send one person back and that is the extent of my ability to interfere."

 _I can do that. I accept._

"Then go."

* * *

The whiteness turned to black, but it felt as if it was simply because her eyes were close. She felt a horrible headache, was extremely tired to the point where she could barely stand, and had no Aura.

Opening her eyes, she looks around. _I'm... in the middle of Vale._

Taking out her scroll, she checks the date. Sure enough, it was 11 years earlier than the last time she'd checked. Sleep was the thing that interested her most. When she once more checked her scroll in order to see the time, she finds that it's 4AM. Well, at least she had a plausible reason as for why she was so tired. Using her scroll to find the nearest motel, she walks to it and pays for a room, not really paying attention to the price. It was a terrible motel and she had tons of money from her jobs, she could afford it.

The motel had an automated check-in system, which made it all the less painful because she didn't need to explain anything to anyone. She walks into the room she just payed for and plops onto the bed, having forgotten entirely the luxury of being able to sleep without your weapon and shoes at the ready.

The moment she hits the bed, she falls asleep.

* * *

She wakes up unusually slowly, though given that she had unusually exerted her body and used a ridiculous amount of her Argent abilities, it was surprising she woke up after just _one_ night at all. Well really, one night and one day, waking up in the afternoon and still feeling somewhat tired.

 _If I payed for a day that means that I should probably get going._ Switching her cloak to white purely on instinct, she walks out of the motel, still tired and with a godawful headache but having recovered her Aura to an extent.

 _Coffee. Coffee would be really nice._ She set out in pursuit of coffee, not really bothering to think of why she would instantly jump to coffee when the last time she'd had it was probably a year or two ago. No wait, she'd had some just a day ago, the time _before_ that was a year ago. She'd kinda forgotten as a side effect of the headache.

She walks into a coffee shop and buys some coffee, not bothering with her favorite because she couldn't even remember what it was at the moment and just grabbing whatever had the most caffeine in it.

 _Gah, bitter._ Still, it made her feel better almost immediately and she continued to drink it. With her raging headache subsided, she thinks what to do next. _Well first, I'm really hungry for some reason, even though I ate a considerable amount fairly recently... that was a day ago, wasn't it._ Deciding that she was in fact hungry and did in fact have the money to pay for food, she orders a large sandwich, hoping not to be interrupted by armed forces this time.

Just as she's about to finish her sandwich, a group of police walks in. _Not again._ She then realizes that she was not in fact wanted in this time and the police were just here for coffee. Still, any law enforcement made her uncomfortable out of habit and she finished quickly and left maybe a little too hurriedly. Attracting some attention from the officers. _Shit. My identification is all... wrong. If I still have it, that is. It would make me 15 for example. And I don't think I should use the name 'Ruby Rose' since there's already one of those running around._

Thankfully, they mistook is for her not feeling well. "Are you alright miss?" one asks.

"I'm fine," she answers in the least harsh tone she can. The policeman looks at her skeptically and then shrugs, returning to his friends. Ruby breathes a silent sigh of relief and walks away. _Now what?_

She could continue to be a Huntress and just make sure to be there a bit before the Vytal Festival. She could go hunt Cinder, Adam, and Salem. Or she could get in contact with Ozpin or Uncle Qrow. Or any combination of those 3.

 _It depends on how long till the Vytal Festival._ She takes out the scroll and finds that it is currently 2 months away from the festival. _Okay... I was hoping for more time. 2 months to stop plans set in motion for god knows how long might require a considerable amount of brute force. If I had longer, I'd just let Chaos Theory do all the work. Mess up one thing and boom, everything collapses._

She sighs. Uncle Qrow, then Ozpin, then hunting Cinder and Adam, the Grimm Queen can wait. She's been around for thousands of years no doubt, a few more can't be too much of an issue. _Of course, hunting to make sure I don't run out of money._

Looking around she sees an all-to-familiar dark skinned, red eyed, green haired girl next to her buddy Mercury Black. God did she want to kill them on the spot.

She watches them carefully and sees Emerald bump into someone, taking some money out of their pocket in the process.

Ruby uses her Semblance to dash past her, snatch the money out of her hand, and return it to the person who'd been robbed, leaving Emerald staring at her hand as a rose petal settled in it before fading away into red mist.

"Heya, thief," Ruby says, turning towards the thief.

Then Mercury started laughing hysterically, struggling to say, "She actually took money directly out of your hands."

Ruby looked at the two. _I guess I_ _should have expected that kind of reaction from him._

Perhaps she should just knock the two out and send them to prison. She could take the two in a fight no problem... though maybe not without collateral damage.

"Now if you two surrender, I might be gentle while I drag you to the police," Ruby says, raising her hand to block an attack from Mercury, despite being unable to see it thanks to Emerald's Semblance. Her prediction was met with the feeling of a knee-kick to the hand. The Huntress grins.

"Yeah, I thought not," she says. Emerald's Semblance applies to specific areas, not constructing an entire new thing for them to see or hear, so she could still see the expression of shock on Emerald's face as the projection of Mercury vanishes and is replaced by a few of him standing next to her. _Don't trust sight. Don't trust hearing. Trust only sensing their Aura's and touch._

She looks around and sees everybody dispersing. _It would be nice to minimize collateral damage, but at least their won't be civilian casualties._ From what she knew about Emerald's Semblance, making her see something was much easier than making her _not_ see something and making her not see this many people would be ridiculous.

Ruby closes her eyes and allows her Aura sense to take over. No more people around her, good.

Her scythe unfolds in her hand.

"You two _are_ coming with me, even if I need to fight you for it," Ruby says, dashing towards where sensed Emerald. While Mercury was extremely strong in a fight, Emerald relied extremely heavily on her Semblance and people not knowing how it worked. Since Ruby already did, getting rid of Emerald would be relatively easy.

On top of that, she'd gotten used to how she fought, so she didn't really need to see the attacked to block a good portion of them. Emerald was more dangerous in that regard because while Aura sensing could show you bodies, it couldn't show you weapons so while Mercury who attacked with his kicks and punches was easy enough, Emerald who would shoot and use bladed weapons which shot on chains was more difficult.

Besides, she was more than a match for Mercury without Emerald's Semblance backing him up—as she had found right before ending his life—so if she could get rid of Emerald, she was good.

And her Semblance assisted punch scythe blow sending Emerald flying into a wall, causing her Aura to falter. She attacked her several more times, and as her Aura shattered, her instincts told her to block behind her. She spins round and crosses her arms to block a kick from Mercury who launches himself upwards off her arms and lands behind her, grabbing Emerald and taking off. Just as she's about to follow, she hears police.

 _Dang it, they got away._ Not so naive as to believe the police would help her because it didn't look particularly good on her side, she puts away her scythe and bolts before the police arrive.

 _Now then, back to telling Uncle Qrow and Ozpin. Maybe Ozpin first because he was closer. Getting Patch would take a while and who knows if Uncle Qrow is even there._ With that thought, she heads to Beacon, suddenly wishing she had a black cloak because she remembered Qrow telling her she looked a lot like Summer in the white cloak, which would be an annoying problem.

Arriving there via a combination of bus and running—thanks to a combination of her Semblance, her Maiden powers which gave her a lot of Aura, naturally good stamina and running abilities, and 15 years of intensive training, 11 of which were truly intense, she was able to run _very_ fast for a _very_ long time—she shortly reached Beacon. The gates were locked as she remembered they usually were. All students' scrolls were keys and they opened from the inside, it was a symbolic block saying 'people that aren't students aren't supposed to be here,' but it didn't really stop them. The scroll of anyone registered as a Hunter was actually a key. Which meant that she didn't technically need to jump over, but she wasn't sure what feeding it a diploma with a graduation date in the future would do, but there was a good chance it would get rejected or alert some security.

So she jumped over the 3 meter tall fence with trivial ease, attracting a few glances from the few students not in any classes at the moment, however they decided she was just some hyperactive Huntress or in a big hurry. This was further confirmed when she took off at a sprint the moment she landed.

She somehow remembered the way to get to Ozpin's office despite said way having been destroyed for 11 years. And so, less than a minute later, she was standing and breathing slightly heavier than normal in front of Ozpin's office.

She knocks on the door. "Ozpin. I've got something you might be interested in hearing," she says, not that she expected him to recognize her voice, it may not have changed too much, but it did change.

Glynda opens the door and her mouth drops. _She probably thinks I'm Summer or something._

A few seconds later, a still dumbfounded Glynda ushers her into the room behind the office and gestures to a chair before going to fetch Ozpin.

When he arrives, Ruby is somewhat relieved by his existent skill in hiding his surprise.

"Hello... Summer?" he asks.

"No," she answers.

"Then who? You look just like her," Glynda asks.

Ruby sighs. "Ruby Rose... from the future," she answers.

"And you expect me to believe that?" Glynda asks after a moment.

"I was hoping you would," she says with a pleading look.

 _Well, here goes._

"Well, since you obviously don't believe me, care to explain how there are _two_ Fall Maidens?" Ruby asks, her eyes lighting up with the flames of the Fall Maiden and a ball of fire appearing in her hand.

Now _that_ provoked a serious reaction from Ozpin.

"How exactly did you become the- a Fall Maiden?" he asks.

"You mean in the future I come from?"

"Yes, I mean the future you come from."

"You know the woman who stole half of the current Fall Maiden's powers? The one sleeping in the basement of this very school, what was her name, Amber? Well anyway, near the finals of the Vytal Festival tournament, she kills Amber and gets the rest of her powers. 7 years after that—4 years ago for me—, I kill her and end up being the last person she thinks about. That or I just happened to be the one chosen randomly," she answers.

"And how did you kill a Maiden?" Glynda asks, skeptically.

"I used the powers that come with my silver eyes, apparently while they don't work on normal humans or Faunus, they work just fine on Maidens," Ruby answers.

"The one who stole half the powers name is Cinder Fall. It will be helpful to remember that when she pretends to be a student from Haven along with Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black. I don't know the name their last teammate used, though I know her real name is Neopolitan. I don't actually know what Cinder or Mercury's Semblance's are, but I know that both Neo's and Emerald's have to do with illusions. Neo's appears to manipulate light in some way while Emerald's allows her to make people see or hear what she wants, however using it on even two people is extremely difficult for her.

Emerald and Mercury always work together and fighting against the two of them with one person is an extremely difficult task for all but the most trained Hunters. In fact, I'd suggest 3 because Emerald can affect at most 1 person at a time in a fight, so the whatever two of three agree on is the real thing.

If you fight them enough and know the trick, it's easy enough. I encountered them on my way here, but they got away."

"Of those names, only Neopolitan rings a bell. She's an extremely wanted criminal."

"Yes, however her Semblance allows her to change her appearance and she can use a different name. However, she did not change her appearance much, only hair color, eye color, and clothes," Ruby answers.

"And what is the state of these people in the world you come from?"

"I don't know why you'd care, but they're all dead. Along with the leader of White Fang, though he's only dead for a few minutes at the time I died and got sent back. For that matter, I don't think I knew the name of a single living person," Ruby answers.

"And who is responsible for your death? And for sending you back for that matter?"

"Salem, the Grimm Queen is responsible for my death and the 'person' who sent me back claimed to be the moon. And I was so close to killing the Grimm Queen too," Ruby answers.

"That story seems hardly believable... if not for you having the Fall Maiden powers to back your claims up, along with the silver eyes to back up actually being Ruby Rose, I would find it extremely difficult to believe," Ozpin says.

"Wait you actually believe it?" Glynda asks in surprise.

"She not only knows of the location and state of the Fall Maiden, but is herself a second Fall Maiden," Ozpin points out, then turning to Ruby he asks, "So when did you arrive and what have already done?"

"I arrived last night, or rather, this morning and I slept, had coffee, fought Emerald and Mercury briefly, and came here after they got away," Ruby answers.

"Now that I've told you, I'm gonna go sleep off this headache I have from using my Argent abilities," Ruby says, turning for the door. Instincts tell her to spin around and she catches something Ozpin throws to her.

"What's this?"

"It's a key to one of the teacher rooms for teachers staying here, you can use it," Ozpin says.

"Right... thanks," Ruby answers and syncs her scroll to it.

"That's an interesting scroll," Ozpin says.

"I made some modifications. For example, the last time I charged it was a few months ago, it charges itself off its user's Aura, locked or otherwise," she answers.

"That seems extremely useful," Ozpin says.

"When you spend a few days a month in a city, yes, yes it is," Ruby answers.

"You'll have to tell us more about the state of the world you come from," Glynda says.

"Sure. But I can summarize it in one word. Hell," Ruby says and leaves.

Ozpin takes out his own scroll and begins to use it.

"What are you doing Ozpin?" Glynda asks.

"I'm curious what the gate system thinks of someone who graduated in the future," he says.

After a moment, "Oh, I guess she didn't use it."

"If she's anything like the 15 year old Ruby then she probably just jumped over," Glynda says.

* * *

 **God this chapter is terrible. Oh well, please review, follow, and/or favorite.**


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